Polka Dots & Bubbles

Last week we happened upon some tickets to go see Jay Mohr at the South Point hotel.  He had some really funny things to say about marriage and parenting but then went into some stuff about rock band concerts that was somewhat universally humorous, but I imagine was far funnier to the people who fully got the references.  I've never been much into rock and roll!
Onto what I wore!  Polka dot blazer and bubble necklace!

{American Hustle revived my love for late 70's level eye makeup and plunging necklines ;)}

{photobomber in pajamers!}

Top: F21 (very old), Jeans: AE, Blazer & Wedges: Target, Necklace: Charming Charlie's

Anticipation / Dread

The other night, I got the kids into bed right on time and they magically fell asleep without coming down the hall 100x to tattle or tell me about some imperative I'd forgotten (You didn't hug me!).  And I snuck out some chocolate I'd hidden and sat on my sofa, snuggled under my favorite throw when it hit me.
This is going to be over in about a month!
In about a month, bedtime will no longer be the light at the end of the tunnel that I can sprint toward on difficult days.  My nights will be just beginning.
I can only cross my fingers that this little one will quickly settle into our routine and be one of those babies that nurses and immediately falls back into slumber during the night.
But the nice thing about this being my third time to the rodeo is that I know even if baby isn't "easy," that babies are only babies for so long and that in all likelihood, I'll make it out alive!
It's easy to gloss over the work and sleeplessness involved when you spend 40+ weeks imagining who this new little person will be and can't wait to peer into a little face and steal all his/her sugar...  And, this time I have two excited little helpers!

Thirty Days!

30 days until my due date!  Who knows how many until we actually have a baby, but, countdowns are fun.
Here are some randoms from my eighth month with this 3rd babushka!

Big Hair Don't Care

After I took Emberly's twists out, I gave her a fresh hair cut and she did an afro or 'fro-hawk all last week.  Then this week we started with flat twists with perm rods on the ends to get these no-heat curls!

Inspired

When I was pregnant with Bauer, I hired a photographer to take some maternity family photos.  It was a fun experience and I loved the photos!

This time however, I thought considering all the photos I take for the blog, "been there, done that;" I'd rather invest in a birth photographer.  But as the big day draws near, I am feeling more bittersweet about it.  I'm so anxious to meet this final member of our family but also a little sad about experiencing all of this for the last time.
Then a friend I used to model with posted a link to a photographer's instagram account and I was struck with inspiration by this photo.  How fun would it be to style a more editorial-feel maternity shot like that!  I was already more than halfway through a box of chocolates (shhhhh!) so I saved the box and wrappers.  I picked up some pickles and gelato and voila, props galore!  I was hoping my girlfriend that recently started a photography business would help me actually take the pictures, but she's in the middle of a cross country move and it wasn't going to happen.  So I enlisted Emberly, with bribes of gelato.  It didn't turn out exactly as I was imagining, but we did have a blast staging it all and I did end up with a shot that I like a lot!

six weeks

Just six weeks left.  Baby must be practicing breathing a lot more in there because the hiccups seem nearly nonstop lately!

Top: Motherhood, Cords: Target

Walking a Mile

Walking a mile in Mama's shoes!

Anniversary

I thought of the outfit I wanted to wear to Damon's and my anniversary dinner a couple days before and I was excited.  And then we went to a huge kid birthday party that day.  And someone (ahem) maybe drank a lot of punch with ice cream in it.  Said someone took a lactase supplement before drinking it, but maybe pregnancy hormones cancelled it out or something?  I ended up with painful trapped gas.  I drank hot lemon water all afternoon and proceeded to get dressed just *knowing* it was going to pass.  It got a little better, but not really.  I did not want to waste a more-expensive-than-we-usually-do dinner being careful not to further upset my tummy.  So we went and saw American Hustle with me dressed like this.  The nice thing about Vegas is that the theaters are in the casino resorts so it's not completely weird that I'd be there dressed like this.

Necklace, top and skirt: F21; Boots: Aldo

And then, we went to lunch on our actual anniversary and it was much less glamorous lol  But it was at a tried and true favorite place of ours and we were there together <3

AND... just for extra giggles, a pic from when we were dating

Maternity DIY /2

Refashion #2 was a fail.  Somehow, I cut the sleeve pieces too small my attempts to fix it made the bust too high and tight.  I picked another shirt up from the thrift store to try again, but, it fit!  It's cute though as is, so I'm not mad.

Maternity DIY /1

Megan Nielsen has a wonderful list of DIY sewing projects for a winter maternity wardrobe.  She also sells patterns.  For this project, I took one of Damon's super old Structure (remember that store!?) button-ups that he was getting rid of because it was much too big and I used this tutorial as a jumping off point to alter it to maternity.
I'm really happy with the results!
Notes: pay attention to the sleeves!  I switched mine once I reattached!  I had to remove the breast pocket.  I notice nearly all men's shirts have this pocket and it's right in the way of making an empire seam.  I also didn't want the bottom to look like an umbrella so I cut down the back half of the bottom as well.  I have trouble making gathers even so I opted to put all of mine under the bust, rather than trying to evenly spread them across the entire front.  I have one more shirt of Damon's I plan to alter and I want to also put in bust darts as well as bring the hem up a couple inches so that it's more shirt, less tunic.

Cardigan: F21, Jeans & Wedges: Target, Necklace: Charming Charlie, Shirt: Self-made!

Back to School

Emberly's break seemed both long and short!
She was not enthused about going back to school.
I, however, am enthused about how well the Havana twists are holding up.  We're going on week four.  Shampooing was relatively easy, and while applying conditioner and gel every few days is a bit tedious, it is also easy.  There are a couple spots looking pretty frizzy though so I'm debating whether I'll shampoo again this weekend and go for another week or two, or take them out.

New Year

This year I don't have any resolutions.  New, and specific ones at least.  I want to have more patience, but that's not new; I'm always working on taking a deep breath and calmly assessing the situation.  I also want to manage my time better, but I've been working on that since I got my positive pregnancy test because I have so many things I want to finish making before baby gets here (there should be forth-coming posts on all my little crafting).
So I guess I just keep on keepin' on!
And almost completely unrelated, here are some snaps from January first.

{one of her things lately; mismatched socks}

Top & Cords: Target, Tank: Express, Jacket: F21, Shoes: very old Nine West

Emberly took the above three pictures; I might have to start incorporating a little residual per photo used on the blog for her!  She's going to save money for Christmas shopping this year.

{browsing Lowes getting all kinds of expensive ideas}

Fifty-two of Fifty-two

I gave the kids the camera for the final picture in our year-long series.  And despite their lack of exposure to social media, they both chose classic selfies; up-close and complete with kissy duck face.  This was fun!